The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1930. TROUBLES IN OTHER LANDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1065, 1 September 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1930. TROUBLES IN OTHER LANDS

EXCESSES are the order of the day all over the world. This is as true of Nature as it is of the ways of man. The elements and economics are in turmoil and find violent expression. It is at least a sad, if not altogether a mad, world, with a great deal of gladness, as ever, for the lucky folks. Within the past month or two torrential rains and heatwaves have drenched and grilled in turn vast areas of the Old World and the New, causing much havoc and loss of life. Great Britain has experienced both excesses and still swelters in phenomenal heat. A record drought ravaged many of the richest States in North America. Ten of the loveliest territories in Italy were ruined by a severe earthquake. Such have been among the worst effects of the incalculable forces of Nature which progressive science can do nothing to subdue. Many prophets, always busiest in bad times, predict that the worst has yet to be 1 Their evil forebodings need not keep anyone awake o’ nights. In the sphere of things which mankind, in simplicity and with almost a beautiful faith, has believed to be amenable to wise control, the excesses have outrun all previous economic experience. Nearly every country in the so-called march of civilisation is wallowing in a slough of depression. Prance alone claims enjoyment of something like perfect prosperity. It has less than a thousand unemployed. Rather than spoil a unique record they should be given lucrative employment watching and encouraging those at work. Everywhere else the evil of unemployment is encountered and will not be put down. Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Japan are in an exceptional plight, and acutely feel the pinch of distress. In the Southern Hemisphere Australia, New Zealand and a great part of Latin America are suffering an excess of depression and crippled enterprise. Because of these economic effects, together with the rapid growth of unemployment, government after government is losing popular confidence. Professional politicians are hopelessly unable to solve the problem. They plead for help, they even beg for ideas, succeed in doing nothing or worse, but continue to draw good wages. It is not surprising that there should be a widespread demand for new systems of government. Perhaps the liveliest unrest today is that reported from five South American Republics. There is a spirit of political revolt in Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Peru and Guatemala. The circumstances are not very unusual. If there be any reason Jor wonder at all it is the fact that trouble at the moment should be confined within five Republics. The whole of Latin America seethes with discontent. Indeed, it might be said without exaggeration that conditions there always seem ripe for revolution. There are occasions when countries without a monarch like temporarily to enthrone King Mob whose dethronement, when the rebellious mood becomes dissipated, easily can be effected with bludgeons or bullets.

As far as the present trouble and threats of violence in Latin America are concerned, the only difference between the disturbed Republics and depressed communities elsewhere is temperamental. Their politics are the same, which means that political affairs are bad. Here a disruptive Budget, political ineptitude, and grotesque State extravagance merely annoy the people and cati.se them to lose respect for and faith in politicians, who are looked upon as a feeble folk like the conies, but still well-intentioned gentlemen. In Latin America similar or worse political and economic conditions enrage the temperamental populace and provoke a demand for the immediate downfall of “scoundrels.” Hence the violent shifts in South American political control, and the talk of revolution. Like many other countries, Latin America has been bitten by the pestilential bug known among Communists as “proletarian emancipation.” This pest is bad enough when it attacks cool-headed people, but its influences arc malign when it takes hold of nations already handicapped by racial contrasts and plurality of types—lndian, Spanish, Portuguese, Negro, and many sprinklings of Euprope and the Orient, of all interbred varieties. These are the people that comprise the fifty-two million of the five flurried South American Republics’ population. The racial mixture represents tinder for a lurid fire. Meanwhile, Latin America is in revolt against exploitation by foreigners whose greed for raw products is rapacious, and also against the kind of politics which causes trouble all the world over.

EMPIRE GAMES AND AFTER

ONE of the lessons of the recently-concluded Empire Games and the meetings held, since, in Chicago and Toronto, is that a good deal of money is wasted in sending away representatives who, on known performances, have only the slenderest prospect, of success against their overseas rivals. New Zealand has not yet learned the lesson that it is better to send a good but small team away than to send a large party which includes only mediocre performers. The mistake has been made over and over again, and it rather discourages people from continuing to contribute toward the cost of sending athletes overseas. In the case of the team sent to the Empire Games, only the rowing crew and three others, Savidan, Elliott and Lay, can be said to have justified their inclusion. _ln the actual Empire Games series, Savidan, a greathearted runner of tried and proved ability, obtained in the sixmile event one of New Zealand’s two firsts. The irony of his fine win lay in the fact that he was sent away at the last minute, and with funds only raised, a few hours before the boat sailed, by private subscription among his many Auckland admirers. Elliott, who was given preference hv the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, had to compete with a class of runner of whom he is not yet quite the equal; hut the experience should be invaluable to him. Even though they may not win events, there is much to he said for the principle of sending promising athletes overseas in order that they may gain experience, and benefit from seeing their high-class overseas rivals in action. But the principle has to he followed with caution, as in the past too many representatives of definitely limited talents have been sent abroad. As expected, the New Zealand rowing crew, though hardly representative, and selected at a time when New Zealand rowing is not at its strongest, demonstrated that in the most exacting aquatic art the Dominion retains its prominence. With a second to England in the main eight-oared event at the Empire Games, and two or three very creditable lesser wins since, the crew has shown that, while we may not possess many brilliant individuals in the domain of athletics, in events which demand team-play, fitness, and the concerted will to win. New Zealand may meet the world’s best on even terms. The Empire Games have proved themselves a most valuable innovation, which should be of incalculable future benefit, and the subsequent contest, between teams representing the British Empire and the United States, the two greatest sporting nations of the earth, was an epochal one in the world of sport. It is satisfactory tq know that in these historic events New Zealanders have played their parts with credit.